No. 1 Gamecocks, No. 3 Southern Cal meet in Greenville to decide the Real SC
· Yahoo Sports
Nov. 14—COLUMBIA — Emergencies require emergency solutions, and often, they may just be a stopgap on the way to a long-term solution. So it is when discussing No. 1 South Carolina's point guard issue, coach Dawn Staley used the same term she did as when talking about her entire team.
"We're a work in progress," she said. "Tessa, Gotti, Jerzy, Brooke, they're doing a great job, actually."
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Who could plan for it to go like it did? Maddy McDaniel this season was going to fill the vacancy created by Raven Johnson's graduation, and away the Gamecocks would go.
Instead, McDaniel went, stressing the need to prioritize her mental health. Staley certainly understood and supported her. There are many things more important than basketball.
But it certainly left USC in a pickle. The Gamecocks gambled and won when Brooke Quarles-Daniels petitioned for a fifth year of eligibility and obtained it, but it wasn't just a plug-and-play fix. She's still learning Staley's system and learning her teammates' preferences, so Tessa Johnson, Agot Makeer and Jerzy Robinson have taken turns with her at point, Johnson first out the chute.
The games certainly haven't been in question. The Gamecocks edged Maryland after squandering most of a 31-point lead, ripped North Carolina and squashed Clemson. The first two were ranked, and all were away from home.
The defense has been strong, and there have been times where the offense has resembled it. Yet mostly when the offense has been going well, it's been in transition; the fast break has been the Gamecocks' most consistent and best method of scoring.
Half-court sets have been merely OK. But again, work in progress.
Although Staley did speak about the method.
"We don't, by any means, want them to think they are a point guard. That's not them. We're going to do the best we can," Staley said. "We're going to work around their skill set, we're going to work around their ability to control the game to the best of their ability."
She won't try to make any of the quartet into something they're not. It's about taking what they have and channeling it into what the Gamecocks need without taking away anything of what they already do well.
Perhaps not what fans want to hear with a massive game on the horizon, but it's what USC has. And whoever is playing point/bringing the ball up, they'll all have to do several jobs in Greenville on Sunday.
The second and final game of "The Real SC" series tips off at 1 p.m. at Bon Secours Wellness Arena as No. 3 Southern Cal arrives. The event, announced in March 2025, pitted the Gamecocks and Trojans against each other in a sort-of home-and-home series; the game in Los Angeles would be at Crypto.com Arena, while the Well got the South Carolina game.
When created, it seemed a made-for-TV event. It was the reigning national champions and their superstar sophomore, MiLaysia Fulwiley, against the other USC and their superstar freshman, Juju Watkins.
But Watkins tore her ACL two weeks later, causing her to miss the entire 2025-26 season, and a month after that, Fulwiley transferred to LSU. The Gamecocks thumped the Watkins-less Trojans 69-52 last year in L.A. and then destroyed them 101-61 in Columbia in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
It's a new season. Watkins is back to full health and is joined by sophomore Jazzy Davidson, their go-to player last year, and No. 1 high-school recruit Saniyah Hall. The Trojans are 3-0 but have played three lesser-thans (no offense to College of Charleston, which lost 105-44 at Galen Center on Wednesday) and two of those games were at home.
Watkins, Davidson and Hall are all guards, and big guards. Whoever's playing point at what time will have to also be a lockdown defender. Makeer did so against Davidson last year, but now there are two more heads to worry about.
Some are calling this an early version of the national championship game. Some are just hoping to see more progress as the work gets closer to completion.
"We've got smart players. We've got bigs that have been in our program for a long time that can handle the basketball. All the pressure is not on (the point-guard quartet)," Staley said. "It is certainly a little bit inconvenient, but happy at the progress from practice to practice and now game to game."
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